Elon Musk vows to create self-sustaining city on MARS with a million people before he dies

Harry Pettit, Senior Digital Technology and Science Reporter

11 Mar 2020, 15:06

BONKERS billionaire Elon Musk has admitted that his biggest concern is setting up a mega-city on Mars before he dies.

The 48-year-old plans to establish a Martian colony with a population of more than a million transported to the desolate planet by his rocket company SpaceX.

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Musk, who also runs electric car firm Tesla, made the comments at the Satellite 2020 conference in Washington on Monday.

"If we don’t improve our pace of progress, I’m definitely going to be dead before we go to Mars," Musk told a crowd at the event, according to Bloomberg.

"If it’s taken us 18 years just to get ready to do the first people to orbit, we’ve got to improve our rate of innovation or, based on past trends, I am definitely going to be dead before Mars."

According to the South African mogul, speeding up the process of space innovation is key if we ever want to live on other planets.

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Elon Musk at the Satellite 2020 conference in Washington on MondayCredit: AFP or licensors

"Unless we improve our rate of innovation dramatically, then there is no chance of a base on the moon or a city on Mars," Musk said. "This is my biggest concern."

SpaceX has recently begun testing its Starship rocket, which Musk hopes will one day fly astronauts to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

A full version of the rocket is yet to get off the ground, but prototypes have completed several key engine tests.

However, the project hit a bump in the road earlier this month when a Starship exploded on takeoff following a dramatic pressure failure.

Starship's first manned flight is likely years away, but Musk hopes to eventually build a fleet of 1,000 of the rockets to carry people to Mars.

Musk's plans are as grand as they are far-fetched – he wants a city built on the Red Planet by 2050.

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Musk has previously outlined plans for a Martian colony established by his rocket company, SpaceX. Pictured is an artist impression of the colony with a SpaceX Starship rocket in the backgroundCredit: Space X

Such a city "has to survive if the resupply ships stop coming from Earth for any reason whatsoever," Musk told Ars Technica last week.

"Doesn’t matter why. If those resupply ships stop coming, does the city die out or not?"

It's not the first time Musk has spoken of his plans to colonise Mars.

In a series of tweets in January, the PayPal-founder outlined how the plans would open up space travel to anyone, regardless of their income.

"Needs to be such that anyone can go if they want, with loans available for those who don't have money," he wrote.

Musk also revealed that SpaceX aims to build 1,000 Starships at a facility in South Texas over a 10-year period.

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SpaceX has built prototypes of Starship but has yet to get a full version of the rocket off the groundCredit: Reuters

That's 100 rockets per year – a pretty tall feat considering the firm hasn't built a single functioning Starship yet.

Eventually, the Tesla boss added, the goal would be to launch 1,000 Starship flights to Mars every year – an average of three per day.

Each trip would see 100 passengers make their way to the Red Planet to become citizens of a Mars megacity.

Musk was a little vague on what, exactly, colonists would do once they got there. "There will be a lot of jobs on Mars!" he tweeted.

SpaceX says Starship's first unmanned flight will take place sometime this year.

Based on Musk's projections, it would take a fleet of 1,000 Starships around nine years to carry a million people to Mars.

That's assuming the company really does manage to send up 300 people a day, of course.

When you add the ten years required to build the fleet, the scheme needs to begin within the next decade to have any chance of meeting Musk's 2050 target.

He didn't specify what each rocket would need to carry, but a trunk-full of food, water, fuel and life support systems is a given.

The first Starship prototype could launch as early as March.

"First flight is hopefully two to three months away," Musk tweeted on December 27.

He added that the first manned trips could liftoff later this year – though the company has a mountain of safety tests to clear between now and then.

Mars facts

Here's what you need to know about the red planet...

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun

It is named after the Roman god of war

The landmass of Mars is very similar to Earth but due to the difference in gravity you could jump three times higher there than you can here

Mars is mountainous and hosts the tallest mountain known in the Solar System called Olympus Mons, which is three times higher than Everest

Mars is considered to be the second most habitable planet after Earth

It takes the planet 687 Earth days to orbit the Sun

So far, there has been 39 missions to Mars but only 16 of these have been successful

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